BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION – 60 ETCS
B A C H E L O
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The impact of the change in a product T name on the consumer’s perception H and behavior. E S ELISE SOURDOT-DEREXEL TRIM GERLICA
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S Strategic Marketing with independent project – 30 ECTS
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TABLE OF CONTENT
1 Abstract ...... 5
2 Acknowledgement ...... 6
2.1 Disposal ...... 7
3 Introduction: ...... 8
3.1 Background ...... 8
3.2 Problem discussion ...... 10
3.3 Purpose ...... 11
3.4 Research question ...... 12
3.5 Delimitations ...... 12
4 Theoretical framework ...... 13
4.1 Notion of Product ...... 13
4.2 The importance of Naming: Brands, Corporate brand and product Brand ...... 15 4.2.1 Consequences of naming mistakes ...... 19
4.3 Product Naming ...... 20
4.4 Consumer perception ...... 22
4.5 Consumer behaviour ...... 23
4.6 Consumer’s bying decision ...... 26
4.7 Customer Satisfaction ...... 29
4.8 Customer Trust & Loyalty ...... 31 4.8.1 Trust ...... 31 4.8.2 Loyalty ...... 33
5 Methodology ...... 35
5.1 Research Purpose; Descriptive, exploratory and explanatory researches...... 35
5.2 Research Approach ...... 36 5.2.1 Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed-Method Research ...... 36 5.2.2 Deductive vs. Inductive ...... 38
5.3 Data collection ...... 40 5.3.1 Primary & Secondary Data ...... 40 5.3.2 Validity and reliability ...... 42
5.4 Limitation ...... 43
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6 Empirical Data ...... 44
6.1 Personal questions ...... 44 6.1.1 Gender distribution ...... 45 6.1.2 Age distribution ...... 45 6.1.3 Profession ...... 46 6.1.4 Living Area ...... 46 6.1.5 Household Composition ...... 47
6.2 Questions about the purchase decision ...... 47 6.2.1 Important factors of the purchase decision ...... 47 6.2.2 Importance of product names ...... 48
6.3 Question about product and brand ...... 50 6.3.1 Importance of the company brand name ...... 50 6.3.2 Faithful consumer of brand or product ...... 51
6.4 Questions about the name change ...... 51 6.4.1 “Same product, Different name” ...... 51 6.4.2 Customer reaction according to product name change ...... 53 6.4.3 Customer reaction according to the product brand after the product remaining 56
6.5 Question about the difference between the brand name and the product name 56
7 Analysis ...... 57
7.1 Negative impact of the product’s renaming: ...... 57 7.1.1 Hesitation in the purchasing decision ...... 57
7.2 Impact of the renaming on the Consumer’s perception of the product ...... 58 7.2.1 How the consumer feels about it ...... 58 7.2.2 How the customer reacts ...... 58 7.2.3 What makes them buy the product? ...... 59
7.3 Impact of the product name change on the customer trust ...... 59
7.4 Consumer brand or product Loyalty...... 61
7.5 Differentiation between brand and product ...... 62 7.5.1 Confusion between Brands and products ...... 62
8 Conclusion ...... 64
8.1 Synopsys ...... 64
8.2 Limitations ...... 64
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8.3 Further Research ...... 66
9 Appendix ...... 67
9.1 English questionnaire: ...... 67
10 References ...... 72
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1 Abstract
Title: Impact of a product name change on the consumer’s perception and behaviour.
Course: FÖ5012 Strategic marketing with independent project, 30 ECTS
Authors: Elise Sourdot Derexel and Trim Gerlica.
Tutor: Reinert Venilton.
Keyword: Product’s name perception, product renaming, consumers buying process after a change in the product name.
Problem discussion: The name of a product is as important as its brand, therefore we wanted with this dissertation to investigate how the consumers react to a change in a product name.
Purpose: The aim with this study was to study the consumer’s reaction after the product they buy changes its name. We wanted to be able to determine the real impact a change of a product name has on its consumers. With this study, we wanted the companies to have an idea of the impact a change in a product’s name can have on its regular customers.
Empirical data: We chose to carry out a mix-method research which was conducted via online surveys in order to have as many answers as we could in just a short amount of time.
Conclusion: After having collected the data and performed an analysis of it, we ended this paper with a conclusion, emphasizing on the outcomes of the analysis.
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2 Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to all the persons who contributed to this thesis with their help, pieces of advice and critics.
To begin with, we would like to offer gratitude to our supervisor, Venilton Reinert, for his professional guidance and support during the writing process of this thesis.
Next, we would like to thank all the students who gave us suggestions during the seminars. These suggestions and pieces of advice helped us improve our research.
Finally, we are very thankful to all the people who filled in our survey in the most honest way they could. Their answers considerably helped us carrying on with the last sections of this study.
Halmstad University
21st of May 2014
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2.1 Disposal
This section includes the introduction of the main Introduction problem and gives a better idea of what the dissertation is about
Here we show the theories we used to help us
understand how a consumer reacts to the change in Theoretical framework a product name, what would be the impact on this change in its perception of the product and on its behaviour.
This part of the dissertation explains how we
collected data from the real world. It gives a look at Methodology the different methods used to collect data that
helped us analyse the outcomes of the problem.
In this step, the researcher gets an insight in the Empirical data results collected from the market research.
The Empirical Data are analysed and explained Analyses with the use of the theoretical framework that supports the results.
Finally, a conclusion of the whole thesis is
Conclusion provided, it sums-up the analysis and meanings of the findings and gives a general view of this study outcome.
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3 Introduction: The segment will include the introduction of the main issue and its background in order to better understand this dissertation. It enunciates and briefly explains the problem and, it also shows the previous research that has been carried around this subject area.
For many centuries marketing has been used by merchants. Unlike centuries ago, our century has seen the birth of many different techniques and theories that allegedly improve the way companies sell their products. (Shaw & Johns, 2005).
The reason why it has been chosen that the subject of this thesis would be the impact a change in a product name has on consumers’ perception and behaviour is that we often hear and see studies everywhere that describe the consumers reactions to a change in the corporate name, yet we barely see studies that focus more deeply in the product renaming rather than in the company’s rebranding. During the past years, we’ve seen some products failing on the markets just because their product’s name didn’t fit to the market. This is the reason why understanding the impact of a product name in its success or failure seems to be an important matter.
3.1 Background
Decades ago, the variety of product was less exhaustive. Companies didn’t have that many products in their ranges; they” just” needed to create one successful product and sell it all over the world. The main idea was to produce in order to sell. (Van
Laethem, 2005). This way of selling only worked because the demand for products was higher than the supply. Competition was less fierce than it is nowadays which consequently reduced the need for mass marketing since companies knew that their product will be sold for sure. (G.Khaled 2012). Nevertheless, today, there is a plethora of products available worldwide. In fact, the choice is so wide that the consumer is overwhelmed by it. International brands can be found everywhere, in every single supermarket around the world. As if this wasn’t enough, the consumer can also turn himself towards more domestic products that can only be found in his own country. (Kearney, 2012)
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In order for a product to attract the consumer’s attention, and stand out of the crowd, it has to be different from the others; it has to be differentiated, whether by its logo, name, quality, volume, or its packaging. (Beath & Katsoulacos, 1991)
Studies have shown that brands and product names are in fact very important factors in the consumer final choice to buy the product. (H.Karjaluoto et al 2005)
.Throughout the years the average purchasing decision time has considerably shrunk and studies show that consumers only need few seconds to make their choice. This is especially true when we know that 76 % of the buying decision is made in the stores, which means that this is where the product name will play its tricks. (Popai, 2012).
Consumers don’t want to think or to spend time anymore before buying the products they want; products have to be instinctive, recognizable, and attractive. (Shopper engagement Study, Popai 2012)
According to Harvard Business School professor, Gerarld Zaltman (2003), the buying decision takes place 95 % of the time in the consumer’s subconscious mind. These decisions are often made in a blink of an eye without the consumer being aware of it.
Therefore, it is important for companies to understand unconscious consumer thinking so they can anticipate the consumer’s behaviour and outdistance its competitors. (Zaltman 2003).
The shopper engagement study also shows that not only purchases decisions are most of the time made unconsciously, but it also shows that the great majority of the in-store purchases are unplanned purchases. (Shopper engagement Study, Popai
2012)
Technological advances and discoveries in neurosciences make it possible to predict real world buying behaviour thanks to the Magnetic resonance imaging and various brain scans. (Tusche et al, 2010). A study published on The Journal of Neurosciences show that consumers’ choices can be predicted via MRI scans, and can also
9 emphasize the fact that the brain generates an automatic implicit process in guiding important and complex decisions. (Tusche et al, 2010).
3.2 Problem discussion
There is nothing more crucial for a company than consumers and this is the reason why many companies choose different strategies over their lifespan so they can develop themselves and expect a growth in their activities. (Manning, Boding, 2012).
The product name allows the differentiation between competitive offerings (Wood
2000). It also helps the consumer to name and put a word on products (Collange,
Chandon, Roux, 2004). Giving a name to a product insures then a twofold function: the finding (recognition of the product) and the guarantee (that it is really the product being searched for) (Kapferer, 1996).
Changing the name of a product is one of the strategies that has mainly been used over the last decades by numerous companies. There are many reasons that can make a company change the name of one of their already existing product (Cegarra
1991). As the brand name change, product name change can be done because of mergers which allow the company to enter global markets, and seek more profits. It can also aim to renew its product image so that it conveys a new message, and clarify the company’s positioning to its consumers (Garnier Aimer 2006). In most cases, companies choose these strategies because they think that it can turn out to be profitable in the long-run. With the purpose of maximizing their profits, companies usually act on three different levels. The first level leads the firms to the use of a new product name or the use of an already existing product. The following is the preservation or the change of the product’s identity. The last one is the kind of processes used to achieve these changes (Garnier Aimer 2006).If not studied enough, this opportunity to earn more money thanks to the changing name, can turn into a disaster. A company must take into account the consumer’s point of view about the change. As a matter of fact, if the change is too brutal, consumers may lose their faithfulness towards the brand or product and because of this, they can even stop
10 buying the product itself (Garnier Aimer 2006). When the packaging is changed alongside the product name, it can even be worse, since the consumer will probably not recognize the product anymore. (Alshebil 2007). At that point, they could have already developed some doubts about the product’s quality, efficiency or components. The question in their head would then be: Is it still the same product?.
Consequently, with the changing name of a product, customers’ loyalty can suffer from the change and possibly make them stop buying the product which will lead to a decrease in their market share and turnover. (Dick and Basu, 1994)
Given these points, we already know how the consumer makes its decision when it comes to buy a product thanks to the previous consumer behaviour theories that will be explained later in this work; however what we don’t really know yet is how the consumer will react to a change in the name of a product.
3.3 Purpose One of the most important things to do first is to understand what influences the consumer in its buying decision if we want to understand how it will react to a change in a product he/she buys. His/her decision can be made either consciously or unconsciously, and lead him/her to react differently according to the situations, the consumers, the products and the brands. We will be able to understand all of the previous statements thanks to the theories we will use to help us analyze the information gathered in the primary data research. It is only after understanding how the consumer reacts, and makes his purchases that we will be able to figure out how the consumer will react to a change in its favourite product. As far as the company is concerned, the reasons why it decided to rename a product can easily be understood, however, it is much more complicated to foresee the customer’s reaction to this change. Knowing whether the consumer will follow the product throughout its change or whether he will switch for a substitute is the goal of this research.
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3.4 Research question Here is the question that will help elaborate this thesis’s purpose:
How did the consumer react to a change in the name of its favourite product?
3.5 Delimitations In this research, we studied the impact induced by the name of the product change on the consumer’s behaviour. To do so, we took as references, various theories based on the consumer’s attitude transfer, behaviour, and theories based on the social representations. We have studied the notion of Product has seen by Kotler et al
(2005), then to better understand the different notions when one’s talk about brand, we went through some definitions regarding this concept. Afterwards, we carried on with consumers’ perception and behaviour theories. Finally we took an interest in studying the consumer’s purchasing decision theory which led us to talk about the consumer’s loyalty toward the brand or the product. For the purposes of this research, we did not use theories based on the consumer’s subconscient in his/her behaviour. We chose not to study theories related to the amount of time a consumer take to make its decision since it is not really relevant with the problem studied in this thesis.
This study was mainly focused on the most common products sold around the world such as Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) given that there are millions of different products that are being sold in a short amount of time. This diversity in products and speed sales allowed us to understand how quickly the consumers will react to a change in a product’s name.
Afterwards, we used the results given by the empirical data to study the different reactions of the consumers toward a change. Then finally, we highlighted the results of our research and describe their implications in our main problem.
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4 Theoretical framework This section gives us a view over the link between the problem and the purpose. In this chapter, we explain the theory we used to build up the theoretical framework.
4.1 Notion of Product
What is a product? What functions does it fulfil?
Before we figure out the importance of a product name and the change in this very
name, let’s take a look at the definition of product as given by Kotler and
Armstrong (2011, p.34).
“A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or
consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services,
persons, places, organisations and ideas”.
The notion of product doesn’t only include physical goods, by extension; it also
includes services, events, places, organizations, persons, ideas or a mixture of
these. (P.Kotler, G.Armstrong, 2011).
There are three levels of products What is a Product ? that need to be taken into account Core product when planning a product. As seen on this graph, the first level is “The core Actual product Product”. The second one represents
Augmented “The Actual product” and finally, the product third level constitutes “The
augmented product”. As we go
through one level to another, more
customer value is added.
(Theory from : P.Kotler, G.Armstrong, 2011).
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As the figure illustrates, the core products is at the centre of the total product. It is in fact the main purpose of a product which is the problem-solving benefits that consumers look for; it is what they really get when they buy the product. In other words, it is the core of benefits that the product will provide to consumers.
(P.Kotler et al, 2005). As an example of what a core product is, a high-quality drill is not what consumers really buy when they want a good drill; instead they are really buying the high-quality holes the drills can pierce.
The actual product however, is what the core product must be turned into by the product planners. It is all the characteristics and attributes that combines to deliver core product benefit. Those are the packaging, brand and product name, quality of the product, design, and all the other features. The actual product is only what the consumer can really see and touch by himself; it is the part that can be observed without actually using or trying the product. (P.Kotler et al, 2005).
That is to say that this second level increases the idea of the product to the consumer’s eyes. Of course when the consumer buys a strawberry juice, he is not doing it because he or she wants a carton, but more because he or she wants the strawberry juice inside the carton. If there is any picture, or familiar pattern on the carton such as name, brands or logo, then the product will even be more likely to be bought, because the design enhance the idea of product.
Finally, the augmented product has to be built around the actual product that is in its turn built around the core product. It is made of all the additional services and benefits offered by the product planner. As an example, among the various services and benefits that can be offered, the most common ones are the installation, the delivery, the after sale service, and the warranty. (P.Kotler et al,
2005). In other words, a magnetic resonance machine constructor for example does not only sell the MRI machine itself, it sells instructions, warranties, quick- repair services and free phone number to call if the buyers have questions. Now the MRI machines are too specifics and may be considered as niche products,
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however this notion of augmented product works for every product, from the
simplest, camcorders for example to the most complexes products such as
medical machines and more...
4.2 The importance of Naming: Brands, Corporate brand and product Brand
Although these three terms may have the same meaning for a lot of people, there
is a subtle difference in the meaning of each of these three terms that we try to
define and differentiate one from one another.
What is a brand?
The American Marketing Association defines the brand as "A name, term, design,
symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from
those of other sellers”. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify
one item, a family of items or the entire range of items of a particular seller.
Sometimes it is also used for the firm as a whole; in that case, the preferred term
used would be trade name. (Online American Marketing Association dictionary
2013).
The definition implies that when using the term brand, we can either be talking
about the name, title, image of a company as well as its products.
Brands have value to business just because the customers give them this value.
This is explained by the fact that they rely on the brand they know and like, to
give them a permanent level of quality and reliability. (Millward Brown 2009).
Brands simplify the life of customers by impregnating the product with a
meaning. That meaning is important to the consumers because it helps them
define who they are and what they want. (Millward Brown 2009).Thanks to the
brands, the amount of time spent by customers to buy a product has been
minimized because the brand acts like a shortcut in the decision making process
15 that allow the customers to make its purchase decision without weighing the features and benefits of the rival brands. (Millward Brown 2009)
Brand names help buyers in many ways, in the sense that they tell the buyer something about the product quality. In this way, individuals who always buy the same brand know that they will get the same quality each time they buy these products. (Kotler et al, 2005).
What is a corporate (brand) name?
A company name is a name or title under which a person or entity conducts a business. It is the name that represents the whole company, its value, its image and its positioning. It often happens that a firm applies its own name to its first product. As an example, we can take The Coca Cola Company that gave its name to its first drink. (Alycia Perry, 2002).
In most cases the brand is assimilated to the corporate name. Kotler says “that a brand is anything, any label that carries meaning and associations. A corporate brand lends coloration and resonance to a product and service.” (Kotler ,2003, p.8)
Some company brands are powerful and make all the difference when it comes for the customer to choose one product rather than another. People would rather go and buy a Coca-Cola than a generic cola drink. In this case for example, The
Coca-Cola company brand has a powerful motivating force for buying its drinks.
(Alycia Perry, 2002).
However, as strong as a company brand can be, its meaning can also be diminished by the company itself. By extending activities in different sector, by diversifying the range of product the company offers, it can also harm its brand image to the eye of the consumers. Virgin is a good example of this phenomenon, because by extending its activities in so many directions (Airlines, Music, Mobile
16 phones, Colas…), it significantly diluted its brand meaning. (Kevin Kimbell,
2008).
Nevertheless, McDonald’s CEO gives a good example of the importance of a company brand name. He imagines that hypothetically if all McDOnald’s buildings and physical assets were to be destroyed in war or natural disaster, the company would still have its Corporate brand name that will allow it to borrow money easily so it can quickly rebuild new restaurants and premises, and all of this thanks to the trust people put in the company. This is the extent to what the powerful corporate brand name can do. The company brand name is more valuable than the totality of all its assets. (Heather Harreld & Paul Krill, 2001).
There are many companies that try to build a brand name that will be identified with the product category it sells. For example Dove is known as beauty-care products, especially soaps, Kleenex with tissues… (Kotler et al 2005).
What is a product name?
A product name can either be assimilated with the brand name as it is for Coca
Cola the drink for example that has been named after the company’s name.
However, a product name is not always the same than the corporate brand name.
Some companies with different products try to make their products look like they are named after different companies. (Interbrand, 2004). Or they just simply create individual product brands with their own slogans, logos, names, and websites, but in reality the products are not made by different companies, they are owned and marketed by the same one. This technique used by Unilever, is also used by other brands such as Nestlé and Procter & gamble and is called
“Company and individual branding strategy”. (Kotler et al 2005). This is to say that for every product created, these companies give them a whole identity by considering them as individual brands, creating websites, logos and slogans, in
17 which the Corporate name is hardly featured in the product design. (Kotler et al
2005)
It often happens that consumers only know the product by its name and don’t really know the company that owns the products. In this particular case, consumers only care about the product as they know it and the perception they have of the product. Here comes the importance of choosing a good product name. (Interbrand, 2004).
Different techniques in branding are then used to create confusion among customers that don’t really know whether the products they are buying are named after a company brand or simply made up. (Merriam and associates,
2013). As an example of this phenomenon, Unilever produces various kinds of products under more than 1000 brand names that goes from food, beverage, to personal care. The company gives importance into giving a product its own identity rather than naming it after itself, the a parent company. Niall Fitzgerald, chairman of Unilever, observed: “A brand is a storehouse of trust that matters more and more as choices multiply. People want to simplify their lives.” (Kotler, 2003).
Brand Equity:
“The value of a brand, based on the extent to which it has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations, and other assets such as patents, trademarks and channel relationships.” (Kotler et al 2005, p556)
The Brand equity is a notion that just a few people know about, however they experience it in their everyday life without even knowing it as it represents “the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer responses to the product or service”. (Kotler et al 2005, p556)
We can measure the brand equity by knowing the extent to which customers are willing to pay more for the brand. Having high brand equity is source of many
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competitive advantages for companies as it brings high levels of consumer brand
awareness and loyalty. (Kotler et al 2005)
4.2.1 Consequences of naming mistakes
Studies have already stressed the importance of branding for business. In fact we
know that it is critical for a company to choose a good corporate name or brand
name since the brand name is a part of the Actual product. (C. Kholi, D.LeBahn,
1995). Alongside the company name, the product name is also very important to
choose wisely. Many products have failed their entrance in markets because of
their name. As an example, when Mitsubishi launched the Pajero model, it had to
change it names into Montero in the Spanish speaking countries market because
of the signification of Pajero in Spanish that literally means “Wanker”.(Marck
Ritson, 2008). There are then as we can see a lot of thoughts to put in a product
name. It has to be universally accepted or at least adapted to the culture or the
country it is sold in. (Michael D.White 2009).
There are many reasons for companies to fail, either because of pricing issues,
wrong strategies or entrance in the wrong markets. But some companies don’t fail
because of the mentioned reasons; they simply fail because they have chosen the
wrong names for their product. The reason is that a product name has a great
influence on the consumer’s behaviour, and choosing a wrong product name will
automatically lead to failure.(T.Dalgic, R. Heijblom, 1996)
After understanding what a product is, we also wanted to understand the reason
why the product exists. (Van Laethem, 2005). Decades ago, the high demand of
products and low supply, lead companies to create a product so that they can sell
it. Nowadays, there is another way of thinking which consists in identifying
consumer’s needs and only then try to satisfy these needs with a product. (Van
Laethem, 2005). Understanding customer’s purchasing behaviour is critical when
planning on launching a product. Knowing what influences the decision in the
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buying process allows the companies to customize their product for specific
targeted markets. (John Dewey 2007). The ability to anticipate the customers’
behaviour will allow the companies to easily satisfy their needs and even create
more needs so they can sell their products. (G.Zaltman 2003).
We explained how the consumer behaves when he is about to buy a product later
on in this work. The next subsection contains previous researches on product
naming and branding techniques.
4.3 Product Naming To avoid such blunders and mistakes, there are different existing naming
techniques that have been applied by various different companies. The process
involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s
mind is often called “Branding”. These techniques can be applied to a company
name, a service or a product’s name.
There are more than twenty different arrays of name styles enunciated by
Merriam and associates (2013), for which we briefly explain the most common
ones hereunder.
There is the appropriation technique which basically consists in taking the name
of one item known in the environment and give it to the product just as
Kayak.com’s – Kayak is a travel meta search engine - services owned by the
Priceline Group was called after canoe kayaks which reminds people of
travelling. Apple is the most basic fruit in the westernized world, and has
strategically been chosen as Steve Jobs’ company name to remind people of the
company every time they see an apple. (Isaacson, 2011)
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Naming a product after one of its components is also quite usual when naming a
product, as an example, Pepsi the Pepsico’s most famous drink was named after
one of its component, the digestive enzyme called pepsin. 1
Sometimes there is no need to take already existing words or to name a product
after its components. In fact, why not fabricating the name from scratch? Better,
why not mixing fabricating and already existing techniques? When wanting to
launch its ice cream business, Mattus decided to name its ice creams Häagen-
Dazs, a Danish-sounding name that will later allow him to reach more customers
than he thought he would. American brand with European-sounding name, the
company owned by General Mills just ads up the ingredient after the ice cream
name such as Häagen Dazs Chocolate, or Häagen Dazs Brownies… 2 (Häagen-
Dazs website accessed in 2014).
Finding a good name for a product doesn’t necessary need to lead to deep
investigations, sometimes the right answer stands right in front of you. Some
company founders have started in the business by using their own names,
nicknames or abbreviation of their own names. Once the company acquire
notoriety, they just then use part of their name in most of their products. One
notable case would be The Walt Disney Company, which names almost all its
products Disney, such as, Disneyland, Disney Resort, Disney Marzipan… 3
Other techniques would require the use of Acronyms, or clever statements as
name of product. Also humour/slang names that catch the attention of customers
is one of the naming ways described by Merriam.
1http://www.pepsistore.com/history.asp 2http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/108106/ice-creams-jewish-innovators 3https://www.disneyconsumerproducts.com/Home/display.jsp?TYPE=33554433&REALMOID=06-000774a6- 044b-1087-a376-1f438b681066&GUID=&SMAUTHREASON=0&METHOD=GET&SMAGENTNAME=&TARGET=- SM-HTTPS%3a%2f%2fwww.disneyconsumerproducts.com%2fSecure%2fdisplay.jsp 21
4.4 Consumer perception The consumer perception of a product or service is the first step of the purchasing act and the customers’ behaviour. According to Walters et al (1989, p 333), in a consumer’s behaviour perspective, the perception is « The entire process by which an individual becomes aware of the environment and interprets it so that it will fit into his or her frame of references”. Perception makes a reference to the biological use of five senses and stimuli which are interacting with the customer (Mostert, 2009, p.43). The five senses are the heart of sensorial marketing; they gather together the sight, the hearing, the taste, the touch and the smell.
Stimuli are external social or environmental solicitations which incite to action, feeling and thought (Steward 1994). A lot of theorists developed the Frame of
Reference Model in order to explain the way the consumer perceive things (Mostert
2009, p 51). Van Der Walt (1991) defined the individual’s frame of references as all his previous experiences, habits, likes, dislikes, prejudices, feelings and other psychological reactions. Mostert also says that every individual has his own frame of reference (Mostert 2009).
Information flow through the frame of references, Van Der Walt (1991, p297)
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The frame of references evolves as a system in an environment, all is linked and can influence or be influenced by the other parts. The three main components of the frame of references are the cognitive component that includes beliefs, experiences, and knowledge. The affective compoment that is made of emotions, feelings and prejudices. And finally the behavioural component that describes reactions, habits and intentions(Van Der Walt, 1991). In that way, every stimuli, just like a message, pass through this three components and lead each individual to take positive or negative decisions according to their frame of reference and their desires (Mostert
2009, p 51).
The context of the stimulation can influence a lot the customer reactions (Wade et al,
1987). Some external facts or personal events can have some positive or negative effects on the customer’s reactions positive. It can be a positive event which happened during the day and put the customer in a good state of mind. In that way, the customer can be more inclined to accept the the external stimili (Wade et al,
1987).
4.5 Consumer behaviour In order to understand the impact the change in a product name has on the
customer, we have to understand the consumer’s behaviour. This following
customer’s behaviour study help us determine some important points which are
used in the questionnaire analysis, points which can possibly change according to
the customer profile.
According to Solomon and Bamossy (2006, p6), the customer’s behaviour is “the
study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or
dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires”.
A lot of theories explain the consumer’s behaviour, for the purposes of our study; we
will retain five important theories which can mainly explain the key possible points
of the human behaviour. There are then 5 types of theories that list customers into 5
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categories which are: the economic man, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive
and humanistic approach (Bray, 2006)
Economic man or Homo economicus:
This theory was firstly developed at the end of the 19th century (Persky
1995).According to Jeff Bray , this view posits that men are entirely rational and self
interested when making decisions “based upon the ability to maximize utility whilst
expending the minimum effort”(Bray, 2006). In other words, people are always
acting in ways, for things, that benefit themselves.
Psychodynamic approach:
This theory is mainly elaborated by Sigmund Freud (Stewart 1994) and considers
that the behaviour is influenced by biology through “instinctive forces” or “drives”
which are acting unconsciously (Robertson et al. 1991). Sigmund Freud mentioned
three facets of the psyche: the first one is the Id which represent the instinctual
trends, the man doesn’t take into account the reality and the others, his own pleasure
is at the centre of reactions and actions. Next comes Ego based on the reality
principle, it understands the other individuals; it meets the needs of the Id with the
reality context of the individual as well as other people’s (Freud 1923). Eventually,
there is the Superego which is the moral and ethical part of every individual
developed by external constraints which, are nowadays imposed in our society. The
superego is said to be linked to the part of the conscience which manage the right
and the wrong(Freud 1923). Whereas other theorists identified other behavioural
drives (Ribeaux and Poppleton 1978). This approach leans on the importance of the
fact that it is the unconscious mind which drives the customer’s behaviour, and not
the environmental factors or individual cognition (Bray, p5, 2006).
Behaviourist theory:
This approach considers that behaviour can be triggered by external events and factors (Bray, 2006). Individuals respond to stimuli triggered by the external environment, such as past events which can create different possible reactions
(Sammons, 2009). Behaviourist theorists developed the idea that people are born
24 with not much innate reflexes (which do not need to be learned), all the rest is the consequence of learning (Bray, p5, 2006). None internal and individual factors influence the human behaviour; the personality of the individual does not have an impact on his reactions.
Cognitive theory:
The cognitive approach is based on intrapersonal cognition where mental processes are in stake (Bray, 2006). The behaviour is an information process which can be compared to a computer (Sammons, 2009). In that way, as a computer, people have inputs, outputs, memory stores and a limited capacity (Sammons, 2009). According to this approach, individuals are actively seeking and receiving external environmental and social stimulus that make them take decisions (Steward 1994).
Decisions change according to each individual, his past, his learning, his experiences
(Sammons, 2009). Stimuli are inputs which help internal decision making; they create a customer reaction (Steward 1994). Stimulus-Organism-Response Model of Decision
Making (diagram below) shows a linear relationship between a stimulus, the customer organism and customer response. Stimulus appears as external factor meaning that the customer is not prepared to this solicitation and future response
(Bray, p7, 2006).
The behaviour is explained by, firstly, the available information in the external environmental, secondly, the way that individuals learn to manage and treat this information (past, learning, experience), and thirdly, the capacities for processing information linked on individual (his brain and capacities) (Sammons, 2009).
Stimulus Organism Response
Stimulus-Organism-Response Model of Decision Making, Cziko 2000
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Humanistic Approach:
Humanistic theorists underlined the cognitive theory limits. To begin with, this approach works on introspective processes to the individual customer (Steward,
1994). Cognitive approaches are based on the fact that the individual is a “rational decision maker” (Bray, p25, 2006). According to the authors, this point of view seems to forget the role of emotion in the decision making process (Nataraajan & Bagozzi,
1999). Afterwards, the concept of consumer’s volition made its apparition. The humanistic authors also describe the difference between consumer’s stated purchase intentions and the final purchase behaviour thanks to the understanding of volitional making decisions (Bray, 2006). Eventually, theorists have brought to light the altruism theory as opposed to the egoism theory which already benefits from the almost universal acceptance in marketing (Bray, 2006).
4.6 Consumer’s bying decision The main objective for companies is to create a profit. In order to create profit, they have to sell their products; they have to convince the customer to purchase the product. Understanding the consumer purchasing decision is beneficial for company marketing strategies, it can help it to create a better offer. For the purposes of this study, it also seems important to understand the consumer buying act because our study work is closely related to the consumer’s behaviour. The purchasing decision is the final aspect of consumption; the key point is to know whether the consumer will still buy the product or not even if the product changes its name.
According to John Dewey (2007) and Philip Kotler (2005), there are five stages that help evaluate how the consumer makes his buying decisions, they are the following ones;
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Evaluation Problem Information Purchase Purchase of Recognition Search Decision Behavior Alternatives
(Kotler et al, 2005, p279)
The Need or Problem Recognition:
This is the most important step in the buying decision, indeed, without a need, there would be no reasons for purchases. Customers have to recognize that they are missing something, that they need something. The objective is to satisfy this need by the act of purchasing. There are two kinds of needs, the internal needs that are the ones that are vital to the survival of each individual such as eating and drinking, and also the external needs which are triggered by various stimuli such as advertisements. (Kotler, Keller, Koshy, and Jha, 2009).
To make its decisions, the consumer will have to reach different levels of needs described In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs before he can make its decision (Maslow,
1943). Maslow’s idea (1943) started from the variety of wants which are important for people to reach, and classified these needs into five categories. He grouped them from the lowest one to the highest one that needs to be satisfied in order to motivate people.
The basic needs are instinctive and they are addressed in a specific order; it means that when the body resolves this need which allows its survival, people can move to more complex needs. The first level of Maslow’s pyramid contains the Physiological
Needs: they include the most basic needs that are vital to the survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow (1943) believed that these are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all of them become secondary until these physiological needs are satisfied.
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The second basic level contains the Safety Needs: they include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. The third level contains the Social Needs: they include needs for belonging to a community, a society, love, and affection. Maslow (1943) described these needs as less basic than physiological and Security needs. Relationships such as friendships, love affection, and families help fulfil this need for acceptance and involvement in social, community, or religious groups.
The fourth level contains the Esteem Needs: they include needs for things that reflect on self‐esteem, social recognition, personal worth and realization. Esteem needs become increasingly important after the first three needs have been satisfied. The fifth and highest level contains the Self Actualization Needs: they include behaviours such as personal development or self consciousness. This level, according to
Maslow(1943), is the most difficult to reach but also the most challenging.
The Search for Information:
This is the processes in which the consumer will have to make an effort in order to search for information about the product that will help the best to satisfy his own needs(Kotler, Keller, Koshy, and Jha, 2009).. This is where advertisement whether it takes the shape of papers, tv commercials, radio commercials or internet will play its role. This is where the ads will help or influence the consumer in his decision to buy the product or not(Kotler et al, 2009).. Alongside the advertisements, the consumer will base his choice on other people’s recommendation. In fact, we tend to trust more the closest entourage who have tried the product rather than the ads (Kotler et al,
2009).
The Evaluation of alternativeness:
In this stage, the customer has already determined his needs and what will satisfy them. This is where they will begin to seek out for the best deals, for the products
28 that will satisfy the best his needs. Usually they will base their choice on factors such as prices, quality, quantity…
The Purchase decision:
Here, the consumer knows what he wants to buy and made his decision as to which product he wants to buy (Kotler et al, 2009).
Post purchase behaviour:
Finally after having bought the product, the consumer will see whether it has satisfied his needs or not. If not, he will experience a cognitive dissonance which according to Leon Festinger is: “A situation in which there is conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours” (1957, p.30-50). That situation will eventually make him not buy the product anymore since despite the fact that he likes the product, he is not fully satisfied with it.
4.7 Customer Satisfaction In our study, we observe if the customer satisfaction and customer degree of satisfaction influence the consumer behaviour after the product name changes. In that way, it seems important to understand the key functions of customer satisfaction.
The post purchase behaviour, previously saw, is related to the customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction can be the analysis of the product quality according to the product expectation (Kotler 1991). According to Olivier (1980), customer satisfaction is reached in four steps.
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Expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, Oliver (1980)
The Expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm is a theory which tells that customers have pre-purchase expectations and anticipate performance about the purchased good or service.
To start with, customers create expectations or beliefs for the product or service they have the intention to purchase. Then the product or service consumption gives a perceived quality level which can influence customer product expectations as known as disconfirmation of expectations (Olivier, 1980). A positive disconfirmation of expectations means that the product or service performance was better than expected while a negative disconfirmation would signify that the product or service performance was worse than expected (Lankton, McKnight 2006). Afterwards, this disconfirmation of expectations can confirm or not the pre-purchasing expectations
(Eugene, Anderson, Sullivan, 1993, p126). Finally, the satisfaction is influenced by the customer’s expectations and the perceive level of disconfirmation (Eugene,
Anderson, Sullivan, 1993, p127). The expectations are a baseline for the degree of satisfaction which increases or decreases according to disconfirmations.
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In the opinion of Kirby and Marsden (2006, p49) there is three different degrees of customer’s satisfaction to be observed. If a customer is satisfied by the product, he will eventually become regular consumers. The degrees of satisfaction can be listed in the three following categories; brand adopter, brand adorer and brand advocate.
Brand Advocates
Brand Adorers
Brand Adopters
(Kirby and Marsden, 2006, p.49)
Brand Adopters are the most numerous customers; they buy the product without any consequences. They buy the product because they need it. They do not necessarily talk about it to other people (Kirby and Marsden, 2006).
Brand Adorers also buy the product because they need it. However, according to their degree of satisfaction, they will speak about it to other persons (Kirby and
Marsden, 2006).
Brand Advocates are less numerous. They buy the product and always talk about it to the other persons. They sing the product’s praises. They are convinced by the product and firmly defend it. It is easy to understand that this particular customer profile is the most interesting profile for companies. (Kirby and Marsden, 2006)
4.8 Customer Trust & Loyalty
4.8.1 Trust Trust nowadays has a central role in business relationships (Burchell and Wilkinson,
1996). It directly influences the act of purchase. The definition of trust is very large but according to Chouk and Perrien, we can define it as expectations, beliefs,
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presumptions, behaviours or wishes (Chouk and Perrien, 2003). However, according
to Dwyer and Lagace (1986), Smith and Barclay (1997), we can distinguish two main
concepts in the literature. Fisrtly, trust is the result of an affective sentiment or a
cognitive approach. In this vision, trust is a psychological state upstream from an
intention behaviour (presumption, belief, expectation, wish) (Chouk and Perrien,
2003). The second concept puts trust as behaviour in which there is a risk taking or a
desire to enter in specific behaviour (Dwyer and Lagace, 1986 Smith and Barclay,
1997). Trust appears as an intention or behaviour, in a cognitive approach (Chouk
and Perrien, 2003).
Trust
Behavioural Psychological Variable Variable
Presumption Expectations Beliefs Intentions Actions
Cognitive and Conative Affective approach approach
Taxonomy of trust definition in Marketing (Chouk and Perrien, 2003)
Regardless of the approach chosen by the authors, they all agree with the fact that
trust is in a dynamical logic (Chouk and Perrien, 2003). Trust doesn’t suddenly come
out of nowhere, the process that leads somebody to trust someone or something
implies a gradual progression in time: This progression goes through four phases
starting from the trust creation, to trust holding, trust providing and finally trust
strengthening or deterioration (Chouk and Perrien, 2003). 32
Strengthening
Creation Holding Providing or Deterioration
Trust progression, Chouk and Perrien, 2003
Trust is built with patience as it grows with time. During its development it can be influenced by different factors such as the “age relationship” (Anderson and
Weitz,1989, p310-323), the “duration relationship” (Doney and Cannon, 1997, p35-
51), the “Past experience with the brand” (Dubois and Sirieix, 1999, p1-22) or the
“experience with the seller” (Ganesan, 1994, p439-448). These factors allow an increase in the customer trust toward the company. Trust is a dynamic concept which grows up with the customer experience in the long term (Chouk and Perrin,
2003). This idea of trust represents in today’s Society a “capital” that companies try to protect and increase at any price (Dubois and Sirieix, 1999, p1-22).
4.8.2 Loyalty
Consumer behaviour theories allow marketers to understand how the consumer works, how he thinks, and what he thinks before, during and after his purchasing decision. The step that follows the purchase of the item is the satisfaction of the consumer. It is the degree of satisfaction of the product or the brand that pushes the consumer to be loyal to it or to move away from it. Researchers have found different models that explain the tendency the consumer has to be loyal or not to a brand or a product. Jacob and Kyner (1973) have given the most complete definition of consumer brand loyalty. The definition is expressed by a set of six necessary and collectively sufficient conditions that are the followings:
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Brand Loyalty is the non-random, behavioural response (purchase), expressed over time, by some decision –making unit, with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands, and is a function of psychological (decision-making, evaluative) processes.
In other words a consumer is loyal to his brand when he repeatedly purchases the product over time even after having considered all the other alternatives. It becomes then a decision the consumer makes and is not a product of randomness.
Dick and Basu (1994) classified brand loyalty in a model they divided in 4 parts :
Repeat purchase possibility High Low High True loyalty Latent Loyalty
Related Attitude Low Spurious Loyalty No Loyalty
(Source : Dick and Basu (1994))
On the one hand the spurious loyalty is when repeat purchase are considered as loyal just because the brand is the only choice the consumer has in the store. On the other hand, the True Brand Loyalty Consumers not only show consistent repurchasing but they also experience psychological and affective commitments in addition to it. Dick and Basu (1194))
Kotler and Keller (2005) show the importance of the Brand Loyalty by indicating that the top 20 % of customers may create 80% of profit for a company. This means that, the longer the relationship between a company and its customers, the higher the potential profit and benefit for the company are.
Finally, studies have shown that by slightly reducing the consumer defection there can be a significant increase in profits explained by fact that loyal customers buy more products, are less price sensitive and pay less attention to competitors’
34 advertisements and finally spread positive word-of-mouth recommendation.
(Reshma Farhat, Dr Bilal Kahn 2010)
5 Methodology This chapter will talk about the methodology of this thesis. The research process implies making methodological choice that will be clarified through justification and arguments.
5.1 Research Purpose; Descriptive, exploratory and explanatory researches
According to Earl Babbie, the most useful purposes served by social researches are exploration, description and explanation. (Babbie. E, 2001)
A research is said to be exploratory when problems are in preliminary stage, i.e. the researcher tries to have a better understanding of a new topic, something he became interested in but not well known enough. This one tries to familiarize himself with the new topic by conducting market researches through focus groups or small group discussion for instance. (Babbie E, 2001)
As its name may already tell, the description study is the one that is there to describe situations and events. It starts when the observer, looks around him, and writes a description of what he observed. (Sauders, Lewis & Thornhill 2009)
Different from exploration, the explanation research is the third general purpose of social science research. While exploratory studies try to familiarize the researcher with the new topic, and while the descriptive research answers the questions “what where when and how”, the explanation study is there to explain things, it gives an answer, it gives the why of the study. (Babbie E, 2001).
With this study we wanted to observe the impact a change in a product name had on consumers, therefore we decided to opt for the descriptive research, as we went from observing the findings to describing their outcomes.
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5.2 Research Approach
Regarding this research, two choices had to be made. The first step was to determine whether we had to use the qualitative approach or the quantitative one for this work.
The second choice was related to whether we should use an inductive or deductive approach. The decision we made is explained in the following sections.
5.2.1 Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed-Method Research
There are two different known ways to carry out a market research. There is on the one hand the qualitative research and on the other hand the quantitative research.
The distinction between these two approaches lies in the fact that one method is framed in using numbers and close-ended questions (quantitative) meanwhile the other one requires the use of words and open-ended questions (qualitative). (John W.
Creswell, 2003)
The qualitative researches focus on understanding what is inside people’s mind, how they make sense of their world, the experiences and the meaning they have of life.
(Merriam, 2009, p. 13). This is to say that it is made of on non-numerical data collection such as in-depth interviews, focus group, observation … For this particular approach, smaller samples are more often needed than large ones. They will help investigate the “why and how” of the decision making process and not only the
“what, where and when”. (Pope and Mays, 1995).
While qualitative approaches try to explain the “why and how” questions the researchers have in mind when addressing their questions, the quantitative approach is used for examining the “who” questions and the “what has happened” questions.
Quantitative researches are not carried out to explain why the consumer reacted in such ways but more like how many customers and which ones. (Given .M.L, 2008).
The quantitative research is an approach for testing theories by examining the relationship among variables. Different instruments are usually used to measure
36 these variables and give numbered data analysis via statistical procedures. (John W.
Creswell, 2003)
Although in the past, researches tended to use both the qualitative approach and quantitative approach separately, making sure they use only one of these approaches when investigating. (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). When in fact, there is a historical evolution to both approaches. Until the mid-20th century, the quantitative approach was the most used in social sciences, however, the late 20th century has seen an increase in the use of qualitative research. In addition to that, more recently, a new trend made its appearance in social sciences; the mixed-methods research. (John W.
Creswell, 2003).
The mixed method research as its name suggests involves the use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches in one research i.e. the collection and integration of both forms of data which according to Creswell, provides a better understanding of a research problem than either approach individually. (John W. Creswell, 2003).
The following chart gives the main characteristics of each method..
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research Mixed-method Research
Generates Hypothesis Tests Hypothesis Generates and verify hypothesis
Usually inductive Usually deductive Inductive and deductive
Explains the “why” and the Explains the “What”, the Tries to combine both to give “What does it mean?” “extend” and in “which a better explanation of the measure” results
Capture detailed Generates statistical Tries to enlarge the sample information from a very estimations of frequencies, but keep detailed small sample number of seriousness from a large information and translate participants sample. that into statistical numbers.
(John W. Creswell, 2003; Teddlie & Tashakkori 2009; Merriam, 2009)
37
Qualitative research focuses more into the analysis of individual meanings, and the importance of interpreting the complexity of a situation which make them best suitable for inductive ways of looking at collected data. However, Quantitative researches, focuses more on the testing part of a research as they aim to test the theories in a deductive way by trying to explain the results and generalize the results of the enquiry.(John W. Creswell, 2003).
The purpose of this paper being the analysis of consumer reaction when a product he is used to buy changes its name; some critical questions had to be answered. These questions take the shape of knowing whether the consumer will keep buying the products because they are faithful to the brand, or because they are happy with the product’s name and utility. It was also helpful to answer the questions that ask if the change in a product name will influence them in a negative way or not. All these questions can be answered via quantitative research in form of close-ended question, they will help analyze the number of pooled that would react positively or negatively to the problem enunciated in this thesis. However, we believe that it is also important to know how they reacted to this change and what came through their mind while processing this new information. This is why the mixed-method approach has been used in the questionnaire via opened and closed-ended questions.
5.2.2 Deductive vs. Inductive
There are two ways of reasoning in a research. On the one hand there is the inductive approach and on the other hand the deductive approach.
The deduction way of reasoning is a process of logic thinking. The website dictionary.com defines logic this way: “A process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true. “ 4
4 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deduction 38
It is then the approach in which the conclusion is drawn from previous established theories to empirical data. The first and most essential part when you start a deductive approach consist in finding theories, make hypothesis and expectations about the aimed research. The second step would consist in collecting empirical data and make observations to see if the theories and hypothesis found previously fit to the actual world. Finally, when observations are made, conclusions are drawn from all the available facts and researches gathered for the purpose of this research.
(Burney 2008)5
The deductive research can be criticised because by definition it is a narrow thinking process that is generally only used to test or confirm hypothesis, which is to say that the researcher, while observing the results will base its research on the relevant information he selected from the premises theories. By doing that he may only select the relevant information he expected to find and miss the most important ones.
(Babbie, E. (2001)). One other element that can jeopardize the deductive approach is that this reasoning relies upon the initial premises being correct, if not, it compromises the whole process of thinking ( Martyn (2008))
The other option would be to use the opposite approach called the inductive reasoning. This approach works the other way, which is to say that it is based on empirical evidence rather than logic. This process makes the researcher move from the specific to the general, allowing then to draw conclusion from empirical data and have improved theories as an outcome. Given the fact that this approach is based on empirical observation, it can still lead to misunderstandings and mistakes because
“sometimes, conclusions based on hundreds observations can also be wrong”(Pervez, G &
Grønhaug, K (2005))
The deductive approach has been chosen for this research because the findings follow the path that goes from theories used to support the problem, to empirical
5 http://www.drburney.net/INDUCTIVE%20&%20DEDUCTIVE%20RESEARCH%20APPROACH%2006032008.pdf 39 findings, which after deep analyses, showed the outcome of the problem. We decided to gather as many theories and previous researches about the consumer’s behaviour, purchasing decision, and perception of a product name change. The theories helped us see if a change in the name of a product had as much impact as a brand name change in the consumer’s mind, and helped us understand the importance of this impact.
5.3 Data collection In an academic research, there are two general ways of collecting data: firstly, there is the primary data collection, and then there is the secondary data collection. (Ghauri and Grønhaug, 2005). Both of these two possibilities of collecting data can be used in a research, however, only we only used the primary data collection in this paper.
Nevertheless, we briefly described both of the methods hereunder.
5.3.1 Primary & Secondary Data Primary data is when information, elements, facts are gather, for the first time, directly, from persons or group of persons (Ghauri and Grønhaug, 2005).
For our primary data collection, we chose to carry out a mix-method (mostly quantitative) online survey. Jacobsen (2002) introduced some negatives and positives outcomes relative to the use of surveys. The way a questionnaire is made up, carried out can have an influence upon the customer’s answers. It can then represent a disadvantage because some information can be lost or non-spontaneous
(Jacobsen, 2002). Furthermore, an online survey doesn’t assure good answers, sometimes the number of answers are not numerous enough(Jacobsen, 2002).
However, this technique offers a broad area and customer’s profiles which can be quickly and easily analysed (Jacobsen, 2002).
The essential point of a survey is its establishment. It has to be clear with a simple design. The number of questions has to reasonable with not too many opened- questions. The good carrying out of the questionnaire insures a higher number of
40 answers and implies more serious answers (Jacobsen, 2002). It keeps consumer’s attraction on the survey and do not bore them.
After a carefully understanding the survey methodology, we created a simple questionnaire composed of twenty questions and one optional open-ended question.
We imagined different kind of questions in order to keep the customer’s steadily attentive: The questionnaire is made up of closed questions (Yes/No answers, multiple choice questions, rating scales). In order to gather as many answers as possible in a short amount of time, we realized our survey in English and French.
With the survey methodology, non-responses can be a risk for the questionnaire analysis and its validity. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005), most of the time, people who do not answer the survey can have different a way of thinking than people who answer the questions. In that way, the analysis can lack information coming from particular customer profiles which may lead to a heterogeneous and incomplete analysis (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005).
In order to get the most realistic survey, we posted our questionnaire on different kind of website with different customer profiles. The objective was to really reach different group of people who have different way of life and thinking. In addition, in order to insure answers, most of the questions were made compulsory to answer, which means unavoidable.
Our online survey was posted on different websites. We sent our questionnaires mainly on social networks. In order to target some specific profiles, we sent personalized e-mail to our address books and forums. We received the help from some people who shared our questionnaire with their friends, family or contacts.
The questionnaire was opened to answers during 3 weeks (time delimitation) and when those weeks come to term, we gathered in total 190 answers.
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A secondary can have varied sources: books, journals, articles, scientific debates, etc
(Clarke, 2005). It is important to be critical and selective to the data (Fisher, 2007).
According to Kotler and Armstrong (2009), people who are collecting information have to evaluate carefully the data. For them, the data has to be “relevant” (match with the research needs), “accurate” (reliably collected and reported), “current” (up to date) and “impartial” (collected and reported in a objective way).
We did not use secondary data because we didn’t find studies that are precisely related to the research topic in this thesis.
5.3.2 Validity and reliability
According to Kirk and Miller reliability and validity are the most important criteria in an academic paper as they give it credibility and informative value which then contribute for the work to have more academic weigh. (Kirk & Miller 1986)
The validity is given when the Data collection accurately measures the characteristics which researchers actually intend to measure when they carry out their researches.
(Malhotra & Birks, 2007). It is then given when the research carried out is Valid and relevant. According to Saunders et al, “Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about”. (Saunders et al, 2009). There are two different sub-theories attached to the Validity which are the internal validity and the external validity. The former represents the extent to which the findings can be attributed to the intervention rather than flaws in the research design. The latter also called Generalisability by Saunders is when we want to know when the findings can be equally applicable to other researches settings. As the sample studied in this research is rather low, it was almost barely possible to generalise our findings and then project them on the entire population. (Saunders et al, 2009).
The reliability criterion focuses on the ability of a research to give identical results after being carried out many times under comparable circumstances and factors
(Malhorta & Birks 2007). In other words, it is there to help study the consistency of
42 the results and to know which Data collection method will give similar observations when other researches attempt to conduct this research all over again. (Saunders et al, 2009). This ability to give similar findings after reanalyzing the Data again is the internal facet of the reliability criterion. On the other hand the ability to come to the same conclusion after reproducing the study is called the External reliability.
5.4 Limitation This essay focuses on the consumer’s perception of a new product name whether they are occasional consumers, or regular. The reasons for choosing these consumers is that it gives a better understanding of the consumer’s reaction and buying decision according to the purchased product. The change in the product name is studied for the most common products also called fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) via online surveys. As the survey was spread out on the internet, there are no real geographical limitations.
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6 Empirical Data In this chapter the empirical data from the interviews will be shown. In total two online questionnaires have been spread out on the internet, one in English, and another one in French. The questionnaires are written in the way that they start from general questions and gradually move to the questions that are directly related to the main problem.
For the purpose of this research, the questionnaires have been posted online in several websites, forums and social networks during two weeks. We have managed to collected 190 fully answered questionnaires which results are shown hereunder.
6.1 Personal questions We first asked the participants to answer five personal questions anonymously after which we slowly move to their preferences when it comes to their purchase decision and finally come to the most interesting part of it by asking them questions related to the change in the product’s name. We started with basic questions so we could have an overview on the customer’s profile from the beginning. These questions are common and easy to answer.
Questions:
Please indicate your gender
What is your age?
What branch of work are you in?
What kind of area do you live in?
How many persons is your household composed of?
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6.1.1 Gender distribution The gender distribution shows that there is Gender approximately 52% of women and 48% of men having answered the questionnaire. Needless 52,11 47,89 to say that the sample is then gender balanced. % %
Male Female Chart 1: Survey question number 1
6.1.2 Age distribution The age distribution is rather unequal
with 58% of people who are younger Age Distribution
than 25 years old, 21% between 26 and
45 years old and 22% older than 46 22% years old. The reason why it is like that
is because we spread out the
questionnaires in many different social 21% 58% networks and forums in general. It is
then quite normal to see the youngest
people answers as the main age bracket under 25 Years Old 26-45 Years Old answers since they are the one that uses 45- over 65 Years Old internet more than the older Chart 2: Survey question number 2 generations.
45
6.1.3 Profession We basically divided the social categories in eight groups: unemployed, retired,
students lower supervisory and technical employers, small employers and free lance
accountants, lower managerial and professional, intermediate (sales, clerical, service)
and higher managerial and professional people. We can observe below the result. As
previously said in the delimitation it’s normal that we have numerously more
students because our survey was carried out online mainly throughout social
networks which as a matter of fact are more frequented by the youngest generations,
and especially students with a stunning 52,11 % of answers.
Small Lower Lower Intermediate Higher employers supervisory managerial (sales, managerial Unemployed Retired Student and free and and clerical, and lance technical professional service) professional accountants
5,26% 3,16% 52,11% 2,63% 8,42% 2,11% 11,58% 14,74% Table 1: Survey question number 3
6.1.4 Living Area We defined three kinds of Living Area areas: urban, rural and semi-
rural. We observe that the Urban ( Densely populated living area has an importance areas such as cities and towns) on the customer’s behaviour or 19% perception of change in the Rural (country sides, outside cities and towns) product name. As we can 23% 58% observe, 59% of our sample Semi-rural (in between both, like industrial areas came from a urban area, 23% located around the cities) from a rural area and 18% for
semi-rural places. Chart 3: Survey question number 4
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6.1.5 Household Composition
Household composition
14% 22% Only me 2 23% 3 20% 4 21% 5 or more
Chart 4: Survey question number 5
The household composition is graded in five categories which are numbers between one and more than five persons per house or flat. In that way, results show that 22% of the investigated people live alone in their home/flat, 20% live with another person, then respectively the households composed of three, four and more than 5 people, are spread out this way, 21%, 23% and 14%.
6.2 Questions about the purchase decision
6.2.1 Important factors of the purchase decision The respondents were asked to tell what the three most important factors are for them when they make a purchase decision. They had the opportunity to choose maximum 3 answers between 7 different factors which were; The Product Utility,
The Product Quality, The Product Price, The Product Name, The product Packaging,
The Brand and The Logo. As results show on the table below, the three main criteria during the purchase decision are the product quality, the product utility and the product price.
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The The The The The The The Product Product Product Product Packaging Logo Brand Quality Utility Price Name 29,22 % 27,98 % 26,13 % 8,23 % 3,70 % 3,50 % 1,23 %
Table 2: Survey question number 6
6.2.2 Importance of product names Afterwards, we asked different questions about the importance of the product name in the customer’s mind. The product name is the reason why the questionnaire was carried out in the first place. These questions give us a better understanding as to how important the product name is.
How important for you is the name of a product ?
35,26% 36,00% 34,74% 35,00% 34,00% 33,00% 32,00% 30,00% 31,00% 30,00% 29,00% 28,00% 27,00% Not important Neutral Important
Chart 5: Survey question number 7
We observe that the people’s opinion on the importance of the product name is divided nearly equitably. Sharply 30% of the investigated people give the product name a certain importance while approximately 35% do not consider it as being this important. Finally, almost 35% of the investigated people consider themselves as neutral according to this subject.
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Among the 190 investigated Is the name of a product important according to the nature of the persons, 84 persons (44.21%) product? think that the impact of the
90 product name varies
80 70 according to the product 60 nature, 47 persons (24.74%) 50 40 84 do not think that the product 30 59 nature influence the product 20 47 Number of answers 10 name importance and 59 0 (31.5%) do not really know. Maybe No Yes
Chart 6: Survey question number 12
When we asked people if they Do you think you give too much credit think they give too much to the name of a product? credit to the name of a 80% 73% product, 73% of the sample 60% does not estimate to give too 40% much credit to the product 27% name while 27% does. 20%
0% No Yes
Chart 7: Survey question number 8
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6.3 Question about product and brand
6.3.1 Importance of the company brand name In order to understand the importance of the product name, we also wanted to know the importance of the company brand name. In that way, we tried to understand the difference between the results on the brand and product name later in the analysis.
We also observed if customers put the brand at the same level as the product name.
Importance of the company brand name 45,00% 41,05% 40,00% 35,00% 30,53%
30,00% 28,42% 25,00% 20,00%
in % of replies % of in 15,00% 10,00% 5,00% 0,00% Important Neutral Not important
Chart 8: Survey question number 10
We can see that, nearly, 41% of the interviewed persons consider the company brand name as important, a little more than 28% do not and approximately 31% stay neutral.
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6.3.2 Faithful consumer of brand or product According to the answers, 63,16% of the interviewed persons consider themselves as faithful consumer of a product while 36,84% consider themselves as faithful consumer of brand.
Would you rather consider yourself as a faithful consumer of a brand or a product?
Brand Product
36,84% 63,16%
Table 3: Survey question number 11
6.4 Questions about the name change This part of our survey investigates the main part of our study that is to say the customer reaction according to product name change.
6.4.1 “Same product, Different name” The following statement was asked in every single questionnaire: “Same product, just a different name”. The main idea is to observe if the people agree or not with this sentence. The question results help understand if customers believe that it is possible to only change the product name without altering the product itself. Bellow, we can observe that nearly 34% of the people do not trust this sentence while nearly 66% do.
Do you believe in this statement : "Same product, just a different name"?
No 33,68%
Yes 66,32%
0,00% 10,00% 20,00% 30,00% 40,00% 50,00% 60,00% 70,00%
Chart 9: Survey question number 9
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For the people who answer “NO” to the previous question, we added up an open- ended question to help us understand why they don’t believe in this statement.
These data have been anonymously collected. Hereunder are some of the most common answers people gave:
- “Because if the name change, you will necessarily have something different in the product, else why change the name”
- “Name is like the ID. If the product changed, it means the company changed or the people who are driving it is different. I will probably believe it is the same, but
psychologically i'll see it differently”.
- “The product name is its identity, any change implies a product change”
- “If it’s not the same name how can it be the same product”
- “They change always the product “
- “If products have different name there is a reason, you don't give different names to the same product.”
- “Because if they feel the need to change a name, there must be a reason....”
- “I believe that some companies conceal changes they make to their products”
- “ Different name= different producer=different ways to work, different raw materials, different people working on it, different budget = not the same product”
- “I believe that if the name of a product changes, it's because something has changed in the product itself. The producers want to reveal other features, characteristics of the
product even if they are slightly different from the previous one.”
We can see that people do not believe that a product can remain the same with a different name because this change as they think should automatically imply a change somewhere else. They do not understand the interest in changing only the name. For them, the change can be the result of a new strategy (of production, product features, development, product throw…). For the interviewed people, the
52 product name change impacts the product identity which can cause non-recognition of the product or trust loss for the product and its company.
6.4.2 Customer reaction according to product name change Then, in our questions, we simulated a product name change and asked the potential reaction that the customer would have had if it was really happening.
Questions:
Would you understand if one of your favourite products change its name?
If it really happens, would you start doubting on these products?
Do you like if the name of your favourite product changes?
Despite the change, if the product keeps the same quality and price would you continue to buy it?
Would you If it really happens, understand if one of would you start your favourite doubting on these products changes its products? name?
YES 59,26% 37,04% NO 40,74% 63,16% Table 4: Survey questions number 13 and 14 Firstly, nearly 59% of the sample answered that they will understand if one of their favourite products changes its name while 40% do not. If the change was really to happen, 37% of them will begin to have doubts on these products while 63% will not have any doubts at all.
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I agree Neutral I disagree
I don't like when the name of my 53,16% 32,63% 14,21% favourite products change
Despite the change, if the product keeps the 85,26% 11,05% 3,68% same quality and price, i will continue to buy it
Table 5: Survey question number 18 and 19
Secondly, nearly 53% of the investigated people admit that they do not like when the name of their favourite product changes, 32% are neutral about this question and
14% have no problem with the change. Nevertheless, in spite of the change in their product names, answers show that more or less 85% will keep buying products if they keep the same quality and price, 4% will stop buying them and 11% remain neutrals (they don’t know).
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The change in product name: Thirdly, our survey shows that for nearly 41% of the
Questions its investigated people, the reliability 13,68% change in the product name 25,26% Questions its doesn’t question the quality product, 21% think that it
Doesn't question questions its quality, 25% the product think that its questions its
40,53% None of the reliability . The last 14% do 20,53% previous not agree with all of the statements previous statements.
Chart 10: Survey question number 15
Finally, after a sudden Reaction to a sudden renaming renaming of the product, around 48% will keep buying 3,17% it however, they will test it Keep buying and test with apprehension and it with apprehension.. around 49% will keep buying 48,15% it and testing it without 48,68% Keep buying and test it without apprehension. Nevertheless, apprehension.. 3% of the interviewed people Stop buying it and will stop buying it and never never buy it again.. buy it again.
Chart 11: Survey question number 14
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6.4.3 Customer reaction according to the product brand after the product remaining
In that question, part of the main idea Would you stay faithful to a was to observe the customer’s company if you don't like the new product's name? relationship with the product brand after the product name changed. We interviewed people on their loyalty to Yes i would 28,95 keep buying a company if they do not like the new % products from this brand product name. We can observe that 71,05 nearly 71% would keep buying % No i will switch product from this brand even if they brand do not like the new product name when 29% will switch the brand.
Chart 12: Survey question number 17
6.5 Question about the difference between the brand name and the product name In the last question of our Which Products are the ones that are survey, we wanted to observe if not named after a brand ( a company people really made the name)? difference between the brand name and product name. In that Coca Cola 39% way, they had to indicate the Ariel 29% products which are the ones that Axe 35% are not named after a brand.
Pampers 30% 39% of the interviewed people answered Coca Cola, 29% Ariel, Lipton 34% 35% Axe, 30% Pampers, 34% Iphone 62% Lipton, 62% Iphone. The only 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% wrong answer was Coca-Cola.
Chart 13: Survey question number 20
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7 Analysis This chapter will be analysing the findings through the help given by the theories used in the theoretical framework.
7.1 Negative impact of the product’s renaming:
7.1.1 Hesitation in the purchasing decision We can see in the 11th chart that consumer do not stay indifferent to a change in their product name. In fact when we asked them, how they would react to a sudden renaming of their product, 48,15% of the interviewed people answered that they would keep buying the product however, they will do it with apprehension.
Moreover, 3,17% of them will actually stop buying the product just because it changed its name. Kotler (2005) and Dewey (2007) described 5 steps in the consumer purchasing decision theory. The customer first experience a problem recognition, then search for information in order to solve the problem, then the customer evaluate the many alternatives that will allow him to satisfy his needs and will decide between these alternatives, which one will allow him to satisfy the best his need. The two next steps are the purchase decision, which is to say that it is when the consumer has made up his mind and knows what he will purchase. The final step would evaluate the consumer’s behaviour after the purchase; it will allow seeing whether he is satisfied with the product which in such case will make him repeat his purchase, or if he experiences a cognitive dissonance as described by Leon Festinger in 1957, in which case he will stop buying the product. The impact of the product’s renaming makes the consumer go back to the step in which he evaluates its alternatives and makes him think again whether to choose the product or not. The 3,17% of the people who stop buying the product have changed their mind in the evaluation of alternatives level, they decided to go for another product. However, the 48,15 % of consumers that claimed that they will test the new product with apprehension, know that they will try the new product and see if they experience a cognitive dissonance or not, which bring them back to the 4th step of the purchase decision process.
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7.2 Impact of the renaming on the Consumer’s perception of the product
7.2.1 How the consumer feels about it In the following question (Table 5), we asked if the consumers agreed or not to the following statement “I don't like when the name of my favourite products changes”, to which 53,16% of them answered that they agree with this statement, 32,63% were indifferent to the statement and 14,21 % disagreed with it. The fact that the majority agreed with the fact that they don’t like when their product changes its name is explicable throughout the reality that consumers behave according to stimuli which according to steward (1994) “are external solicitations (social, environmental…) which incite to action, feeling, thought”, in our case the external solicitation is the change in the product’s name. In fact, every individual’s reactions are defined by their previous experiences, habits, likes and dislikes, also called their frame of reference. (Mostert
2009). Needless to say then that according to the answers they react to the stimuli in an affective way, they are used to the old name, and affectionate it, they do not really want it to change. The affective component is the second main component in the frame of reference that explains that emotions, feelings and prejudice play an enormous role in the consumer’s reaction to stimuli. (Van Der Walt 1991). The results confirm Van Der Walt’s theory.
7.2.2 How the customer reacts The previous question was followed by a sub-question (table 5) that was “Despite the change, if the product keeps the same quality and price, i will continue to buy it”. If we think the same way as we thought in the previous section, and think that emotion will rule in their decision, we would expect them to disagree with the statement.
However, results show that 85,26% would keep buying the product, and only 3,68 % of them would actually stop buying it. This shows that even if emotion plays a role in the way they perceive the change and the way they feel about it, it will not be this consequent when it comes to react to the change. In this case, consumers tend to react more rationally; they act as Homo economicus which means that they act in a way that allow them to maximize the utility whilst expanding the minimum effort. (Bray
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2005). This matches the results because if they are guaranteed that the product remains the same in its quality and price, they are less willing to try and search for alternative products.
7.2.3 What makes them buy the product? Here the question was meant to help us determine what features of the products or what benefits of it makes people want to buy a product(see table 2); it is about knowing what a consumer think is an important factor to think about when they buy their product. They could choose maximum 3 answers between 7 answers which were: The Product Utility, its Quality, Price, packaging, name, brand, and Logo. We observed that 74,74 % of them put the quality of the product as the most important factor they think about when they make their buying decision. The product Utility and Price follow with respectively 71,58% and 66,84%. Here we can see that the brand comes before the product name, indeed, the brand factor has been chosen in
21,05% of the questionnaires whereas the product name is chosen in only 9,47 %. We can clearly see that what remains the most important to customer if they are asked is the core product which is the first purpose of the product, the reason why they buy it, its utility, what it delivers and the problem-solving benefits it gives. (P.Kotler,
V.Wong, J.Saunders, G.Armstrong, 2005). The consumers after having determined that the core product which is to say (the Product Quality, Utility and Price) were the most important, put the actual product as a second level in the their ladder of importance, because it represents all the characteristics and attributes that combines to deliver core product benefit. (P.Kotler, V.Wong, J.Saunders, G.Armstrong, 2005).
What makes a consumer buy a product, is the problem recognition, they have a need they want to satisfy.
7.3 Impact of the product name change on the customer trust Here we analyzed the impact of the change in the product name on the customer’s trust toward the product or the company.
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An important question of our survey interviewed people about their trust on the following statement “Same product, just a different name” (see chart 9). Nearly 62% of the investigated people answered “Yes” meaning that they believe in this statement, while nearly 34% of them answered “No”. We can observe two opposite customer behaviours which will affect differently the product. The first two thirds of the people trust this statement that is to say even if a product name change, they can understand that it’s totally the same product. The product quality and characteristics are not question. Those who answered « Yes » can be the people who show a true loyalty toward the brand (Dick and Basu, 1994). More than consistent repurchasing, they have a psychological and affective commitment with the company (Dick and
Basu, 1994). That is to say, they trust the company down to the last word. The trust relationship was already established. According to Chouk and Perrien (2003) the different steps in the trust progression (creation, holding, providing) seems already completed and confirmed the strengthening success of the relationship.
Another hypothesis is that those people do not give too much importance to the product name. They buy the product because they need it or want it. No matter the product name, they seem to buy the product for its characteristics.
The last third of the investigated people do not trust this statement, so they question the product and sometimes the brand’s intention. In order to understand this negative answer, this question was followed by a sub-question, which was a request for their explanation of this disagreement. Thanks to the answers, we can distinguish different customer doubts. Most of the people defined the product name as the product identity, in that way, any change in the name implies a change in the product. For them, it’s seems illogical to change the product name without making any other changes, by definition for them a change implies something new: either new raw materials, features, producers, ways of functioning etc. Some of the investigated people said that they can believe that the product will be the same but in their mind, psychologically they will see it different. Finally, some of the people, clearly express doubts in the company, brand’s intentions, for them the final
60 intention is profit, so company can change a product name because it was not successful, because they want to reveal other product advantages, they want to manipulate the customer’s opinion.
For this part of the investigated people a product name always implies a product change even if the company claims the opposite. We can say that those people do not fully trust the company because they reconsider its words.
To continue our analysis, we interviewed people about if one of their favourite products changes its name would they start doubting on these products (table 4).
Around 37% answered that they will start having doubts on the product while around 63% will not. We can still distinguish three kinds of customers: those who trust the company, those who do not really care about the product name and those who do not believe that the change on the product is without consequences.
Finally, we asked people about the impact of the change on their vision of the product. For around 25% of the sample, the product renaming questions its reliability, for around 21% this change questions the product quality, for nearly 41% the product name change does not question the product. Finally, for nearly 14%, the product renaming does question neither its reliability nor quality.
7.4 Consumer brand or product Loyalty When the investigated people were asked if they rather consider themselves as faithful consumer of a brand or a product, the answer came up clear (table 3). For
63,16 % of them, it is the product that they chose in this question, the brand representing only 36,84%. However when came the time to ask them if they would stay faithful to the company if they don’t like the new product name, they answered up to 71,05% that they would keep buying the product and only 28,95% of them say that they would rather switch brand if they don’t like the new product name. We can then see an internal conflict between their beliefs. Most of them think that they buy the product because they are loyal to the product, because of its Utility, its price or its quality; however they are unconsciously influenced by the company’s brand.
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Therefore their Loyalty is more like a brand Loyalty, and the reason why their loyalty toward the brand is either true, latent spurious or non-existent (Dick and Basu
(1194)). It is also important to notice that sometimes, they do not really know the extent of their loyalty, but when they are asked if they would pay more for a certain product or the same price for the same product with a generic name, they would rather pay few more cents so they can have the product they know from the brands they already know. Most of the time, the most loyal consumers are called Brand advocators (Kirby and Marsden (2006, p49)), because not only they buy the product, but they also sing its praises to other people.
7.5 Differentiation between brand and product
7.5.1 Confusion between Brands and products In one of our questions, we ask people to choose 3 products among five, they had to choose ones that are not named after their parent company. The products were the following; Iphone, Lipton tea, Pampers, Axe, Ariel and Coca-Cola. The results show that they were not able to clearly answer the question. All of the previous choices except for Coca-cola were the right answers, however, Coca-cola appears in 75 questionnaires out of the 190, which is to say that 39,47% of people having answered think that Coca-Cola is not named after its parent company. The most successful product in this answer is the Iphone, indeed, it seems that people know quite well the product, because 62 % of the investigated people were right when they said that the Iphone is not named after the company’s name which is apple. All of the products in this question except coca-cola and Iphone, come from companies that use the technique called company and individual branding strategy to confuse people
(Kotler et al 2005), and as results show, most of the products haven’t been selected as answer by respondents as they should have been. Although the right answers in this questions were Iphone, Lipton, Pampers, Axe, Ariel, they have only been selected by
30 to 35 % of the interviewed people. This shows that the notion of product brand and product name is not fully understood by the majority of the questioned people.
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People do usually not understand when one of their product change its name, however when they are asked how important is the product name to them (chart 5), they answer negatively with 35,26 %. Only 30 % of them give an importance to the product name, the rest being neutral answers. This confirms another question that has been ask to them, one that ask if they think they give too much credit to the name of a product (chart 7). To that one, nearly 3/4th of the investigated people answered
No, which clearly shows that they don’t really give too much importance to the name of the product. However, when they are asked with a similar brand related question
41,05 % claim that the company’s brand name is important to them against 28,42 % who give less importance to it, the rest being neutral in their answers. To sum-up the answers for these two questions, only 30% investigated people claim that the product name is important to them against 41,05 % who claim that the company Brand name is more important. This matches the theory seen previously that explained this by the fact that consumer rely on the brand they know and like, to give them a permanent level of quality and reliability. (Millward Brown 2009).
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8 Conclusion
8.1 Synopsys
The purpose of this thesis was to describe the impact the change in the product name had on consumers. In order to pursue this purpose, the authors of this thesis gathered various theories that helped develop the Data analysis. These theories mainly focused on the consumers’ behaviour, perception and purchasing decision.
What comes out of the data analysis is that this change, in a product name, has induced a negative impact on some customers as they would make them hesitate to continue buying the renamed product. As for the impact on the consumer’s perception of the product, the analysis shows that even if some customers have some doubts on the renamed product they usually expect the new named product to be as good as the old-named product, quality and reliability wise. As for their reactions to the change, the figures clearly show that if they are guaranteed that the product keeps its quality and price they will continue to buy it. So, although customer’s perception of the change can vary from individuals, their behaviours tend to match and differ from the initial perception triggered by fear, emotions and anticipations.
They tend to behave in a rational way even though at first emotions can make them doubt. The final main point that comes out of this study is that the investigated people confuse the notion of corporate brand and product brand, which then make them base their decision on the value of the corporate brand when they have doubts.
8.2 Limitations There are some unavoidable limitations that often come across when writing a research paper. Although they can be reduced, they will never completely disappear due to the amount of factors that should be taken into account when writing a thesis.
In this paper, the limitations are threefold:
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On the one hand, in order to understand the impact the change in a product name had on consumers and to know how they reacted to this change, an online survey has been carried out via two identical questionnaires, one in French, and the other in
English. After having gathered answers from a sample of population, we analysed the findings and used the theory gathered earlier to understands and interpret the empirical data. However, the fact that the survey has been conducted through the internet and especially forums and social networks gave us a large proportion of young respondents comparing to middle-aged and elderly ones. The age brackets are then not equally distributed. The 0 to 25 years old people were easier to reach than the 45 to over 65 years old which represent a poor percentage of answers. The fact that there are more young people than elderly people does not perfectly give accurate percentages.
On the other hand, although most of our questions are close-ended questions used in quantitative researches, we have one open-ended question that is used in qualitative researches. This is the reason why we decided to chose the mix-method research as the name of our approach since it is not a 100% a qualitative research nor a 100 % quantitative research. However, since time was lacking, we only managed to obtain
190 fully answered questionnaires which is not really enough, in fact, it does not enable us to generalize our findings to the whole population, which is the customers.
The fact that we only used one open-ended question also constitute a limitation to our study because it did not allow us to obtain detailed information as to how the consumer felt about the change in the name of the product.
Finally, as we wanted to have a general view over the fast moving consuming good industry, we did not focus on specific product categories or company when posing the questions and this can constitute a limitation in itself because if we had target specific product categories or company the results would have been perhaps different. As we simulated a change in a product name, some misunderstandings
65 might have occurred during the research which might have influence the accuracy of the answers.
8.3 Further Research The main goal of our thesis was to understand the impact a change in a product name has on the consumer’s behaviour and perception of the product, to follow that spirit, we conducted an online survey so we could gather as many data as possible.
However, the findings only give us an overall vision of the consumer’s perception.
Therefore, it would be very interesting to go into further details; this is to say that, it would be helpful for the next studies to focus into specific product categories instead of choosing a general category as we did in this study with the fast moving consumer goods. Studying more in detail the impact a change in a product name has on customers according to the nature of the product would be even more useful.
To finish with, we think that the next studies that will be conducted around this subject should gather more empirical data, qualitative as well as quantitative questions in order to be able to generalize the findings to a whole population.
Alongside empirical data, we can suggest the use of case studies based on companies that have changed the name of their products to finally come back come back to the initial name. In this way, it would be interesting to see how the customer reacted to these changes in terms perception, behaviours and loyalty to the brand or product.
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9 Appendix In this section is enclosed the online questionnaire used for the primary research. Two identical questionnaires have been spread out online, one in French and another one in English. The questions being the same in both questionnaires, it has been decided to enclose only the English one for paper saving purposes
9.1 English questionnaire:
1. Please indicate your gender. *
Male Female
2. What is your age? *
Under 16
16-25 26-35 36-45 46-55
56-65 Over 65
3. What branch of work are you in ? *
Higher managerial and professional
Lower managerial and professional Intermediate (sales, clerical, service) Small employers and free lance accountants Lower supervisory and technical Unemployed Student
4. What kind of area do you live in? * 67
Urban ( Densely populated areas such as cities and towns)
Rural (country sides, outside cities and towns) Semi-rural (in between both, like industrial areas located around the cities)
5. How many persons is your household composed of? *
Only me
2 3 4 5 or more
6. What are the most important factors when you make a purchase decision? * (3 choices possible)
The Product Utility( The usefulness of the product, the reason why you bought it at the first place) The Packaging of the product (How the product is wrapped, how it looks like) The Product Name ( The name of the product, for example, Fanta, Iphone, Ipod, Pajero, Axe..) The Logo ( The distinctive image that allows you to recognize the product) The Brand ( The company that sells the product, e.g Coca-Cola, Unilever...) The Product Quality ( Low or High quality) The Product Price ( What you pay in order to have the product)
7. How important for you is the name of a product ? * The name of a product is the name given to a product, it is not the brand name. For example, Fanta, Iphone, Pajero, are product names. 1 2 3 4 5
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Not important at all Very important 8. Do you think you give too much credit to the name of a product? *
Yes No
9. Do you believe in this statement : "Same product, just a different name"? *
Yes No
10. If you answered No to the previous question, could you explain why?
11. How important is your favourite product's company brand name? *
1 2 3 4 5
Very important Not important at all 12. Would you rather consider yourself as a faithful consumer of a brand or a product? *
Brand (The company image or name) Product ( The product itself)
13. Is the name of a product important according to the nature of the product? *
Yes
No Maybe
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14. Would you understand if one of your favourit product changes its name? *
Yes No
15. If it really happens, would you start doubting on these products? *
Yes No
16. How would you react to a sudden renaming of your favourite product?*
Keep buying and test it with apprehension Keep buying and test it without apprehension Stop buying it and never buy it again
17. The change in a product's name : *
Doesn't question the product
Questions its quality Questions its reliability None of the previous statements
18. After having tested the (food) renamed product, have you seen any change in it? *
Yes, in its taste
Yes, in its quality Not at all
19. Would you stay faithful to a company if you don't like the new product's name? *
Yes i would keep buying products from this brand 70
No i will switch brand
20. Please answer the following way: 1 = I fully agree; 2 = I agree; 3=Neutral, 4 I disagree; 5 = I fully disagree.
I fully I fully I agree Neutral I disagree agree disagree
I don't like when the name of my favourite products change
Despite the change, if the products keeps the same quality and price, i will continue to buy it
21. Among these products, which ones are the ones that are not named after a brand ( a company name)?
Brand here means the name of the company that created the product Coca Cola
Axe Iphone Lipton Pampers Ariel
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10 References
2012 « Shopper Engagement Study » (Study conducted by POPAI Global In the United States). Also retrieved from : http://www.popai.fr/textes/Shopper_Engagement_Study.pdf
A.T. Kearney conducted the study in November 2012. Retrieved from : http://www.atkearney.com/consumer-products-retail/ideas-insights/featured-article/- /asset_publisher/KQNW4F0xInID/content/buying-into-the-local-food- movement/10192
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